Tiffany Wong, associate director, HR and transactional services divisions, Robert Walters Hong Kong has had candidates inform her of cases where they were asked questions unrelated to the job at all.

“Candidates told me they were asked personal questions by the interviewer, such as ‘How do you handle a bad relationship?’ and ‘Have you experienced a bad break-up?’,” she said.

Wong explained that asking out of context questions is a way for employers to differentiate candidates who are able to think on their feet and have a open mind, two traits sought after in today’s job market. “Interviewers are not looking for a perfect answer, rather they want to see how candidates react.”

She added that asking oddball questions is not a common among local (Hong Kong) employers and she does not see a growing trend of it.

Mark Jaffe, president of executive search firm Wyatt & Jaffe pointed out that if interviewers throw out strange questions just for the sake of doing it, this will be pointless.

According to Jaffe, if the employer uses bizarre questions just to throw candidates off their game or trick them, then it won’t be useful in trying to get them to share something beyond their prepared answers.

“The idea is to get people to relax their defences and dredge up something that may not be in their immediate repertoire for an interview,” he said.